


On Display

by alessandralee



Category: Descendants (2015)
Genre: Ballroom Dancing, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-08
Updated: 2015-09-08
Packaged: 2018-04-19 19:37:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,050
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4758422
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alessandralee/pseuds/alessandralee
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mal usually spends her time at balls and banquets hiding in the corner. Tonight she doesn't get that luxury.</p>
            </blockquote>





	On Display

**Author's Note:**

> Part of my 100 Ways to Say I Love You challenge.

If the last month has been any indication, then hiding in corners is quickly becoming Mal’s favorite activity.

Really, it’s the lesser of two evils. The other one involves curtseying, dancing, and making small talk with different nobles and dignitaries from all corners of Auradon. Mal can only take so much of that before she feels ready to jump out of her skin.

No one had warned her that dating a newly crowned king meant attending nearly every banquet, brunch, garden party, and ball thrown in his honor. And with formal visits happening from each and every state in the country, Mal barely had time to study for classes between each event.

And there were still plenty more to come.

Tonight’s visitors are the delegation from Charmington. Chad’s father had been held up by some issue regarding income tax, but the younger Charming is there with Audrey on his arm. Mal had sat at a table with his mother for dinner, and was relieved when all she did was ask polite questions about school.

Still, Mal excused herself as soon as the final course was finished and the dancing began.

And she’s been successfully hiding from view ever since, with the exception of a short conversation with Dopey and Grumpy, when her usual hiding place turned out to already be occupied.

Mal is using the illustrated map painting on one wall of the ballroom to review for her upcoming geography exam, when Ben finds her.

He’s being trailed by two courtiers Mal has never seen before, and he looks as closed to panicked as she’s ever seen him (that run-in with her mother notwithstanding). 

“Mal, there you are,” his eyes light up when he spots her. He holds out a hand. “Can I have this dance?”

Mal is struck by the sudden urge to smack that hand away.

She doesn’t, though. They’re in a room full of important people. People she’s trying to convince that she doesn’t take after her mother.

She can feel their eyes on her.

So she gulps, steadies herself, and takes Ben’s hand.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry. I know you hate dancing,” Ben whispers profuse apologies as he leads her out to the dance floor.

That’s not entirely accurate. Mal doesn’t hate dancing, she’s just terrified of potentially screwing up in front of over a hundred guests.

Dancing she might even like, when it’s just Ben and her.

“It’s fine,” she tells him as the orchestra strikes up a waltz.

At least it’s not something more complicated.

Ben slides a hand onto her shoulder as they get into position. Mal has to resist the urge to flee. Maybe if she kicks off a shoe as she runs away, Cinderella will believe it’s some kind of homage to her.

It’s not worth the risk.

Mal follows as Ben leads, staring at her feet as she counts the steps in her head. She doesn’t look graceful, not by any means, but at least she hasn’t tripped over the bottom of her dress and taken out all the other couples nearby.

(Sometimes when Mal hides out during balls, she entertains herself by imagining all the horrible things that could go wrong.)

“I was going to let you do your usual thing,” Ben tells her, “but they wouldn’t stop talking about sewage systems. And then you were right there, and I was so desperate.”

“My usual thing?” Mal asks, surprised. She hadn’t been aware that Ben recognized her bad habit.

“When you… retire from conversation,” Ben phrases it a bit more delicately than he probably should.

“Oh, that,” she mumbles. She hopes no one else has notice, or if they have, she hopes they never mention it to her.

“You lasted longer than usual tonight,” he tells her. He must mean that she didn’t excuse herself to hide in the bathroom three times during the meal. “Cinderella even told me that she learned more from you about what’s going on at school than she does when Chad goes home for the holidays.”

Cinderella was lying. She had to have been lying, there’s nothing Chad likes to talk about more than himself.

Mal’s thankful for it anyway.

“And Dopey said you were particularly knowledgeable about mines,” he adds. 

“Okay, that’s because Doug’s been helping me study their locations for that geography test,” Mal says.

The one she’s not sure Ben’s spent five minutes studying for. How he manages to balance being king with his school duties is something even Mal doesn’t understand.

“Grumpy thinks you know more than I do,” Ben admits. “He said I should start bringing you to council meetings.”

Mal’s eyes widen in terror. That would be worse than an entire month of balls.

“Don’t worry,” Ben laughs. “I think he said it mostly so he could make a dig at me. And I told him you were too busy catching up on a decade’s worth of school.”

She is. There’s a pile of textbooks sitting on her desk that she’s barely made a dent in. It feels like she’ll never catch up.

But Mal knows Ben is telling her all this to distract her. Subtlety really isn’t his strong point.

But it’s working, so she doesn’t mind. She lets him tell her about sewage system repairs, and the Charmington ambassador’s awful toupee as he swirls her around the dance floor.

It’s not nearly as awful as she’d imagined it being.

She’s still relieved when the music stops, though. Relieved and glad that she hasn’t made a complete fool of herself where so many people could see.

Even if they all pretended not to, Audrey certainly wouldn’t let her live it down.

As soon as they step off of the dance floor, Ben is swept away from yet another unfamiliar group of people dressed in expensive clothing. Mal hopes they’re from Charmington, otherwise it’s a long list of people she’ll have to get familiar with.

She considers returning to her hiding spot for the next hour until the ball officially ends. She’ll be able to sneak out while Ben says goodbye to every last guests.

Instead she decides to seek out a familiar blonde head of hair she spots on the other side of the room.

Perhaps Cinderella would like to hear how the tourney season is going.


End file.
